Creating a Wowhead Guide

So you are looking to make a Wowhead guide? Hopefully this guide will help you to make your guide better so that it will reach and help more players.

I am writing this guide based on over 12 years of guide writing, teaching and assisting others in many different aspects of the gaming world and real life fields. Some of my first gaming guides were for EverQuest. I then moved to other aspects of gaming. I have done guides for games such as EverQuest, Zelda, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, Shadowrun 2, and many more.

This guide contains a lot of copy. It is the nature of the beast with these type of guides. I have tried breaking it down as much as possible for easier reading. However, people who are looking for this kind of information I understand are willing to read through some copy.

Subject

You may or may not have a set subject for your guide. That's okay. However, there are somethings to keep in mind when deciding on your subject and when you are hammering it out.

• Knowledge of the Subject

Background. First and foremost make sure you have some background in what you are writing your guide about. A guide with a lot of incorrect information helps no one, and can tank your credibility with future guides. If you don't raid than it is safe to say you might want to avoid raiding type guides.

Research. Though you may have a good idea about the subject; it doesn't hurt to check your facts. There are tons of resources out there: Wowhead, Google, MMO-Champions, Wowpedia, etc. Don't forget to keep track of where you got what information from. You may need it again later. Also check and make sure there isn't currently a guide already on Wowhead. If there is, can you offer something different and/or better advice than what is there? If no, you probably might want to look for another topic.

Information Gathering. Similar to researching, you want to gather information on the subject before starting, and for several reasons. First, to make sure you have enough information for a guide. A guide should be a fairly longer piece of writing. If it is something you can break down into 7500 characters or less you probably shouldn't write a guide, but make it a comment. Second, having the information beforehand can help you with your flow and layout of your guide. Also help you decide what you need to put in the guide and what you can exclude (common knowledge).

• Defining the Subject

Be Specific. If your subject is generic and covers a wide range of things, you may want to break it down into multiple more specific guides. This will do a few things for you. First, it won't overwhelm you in writing the guide, which could lead to you not finishing it or losing steam half way. Second, it will allow you to focus more on the specific topic, which can lead to a better well defined guide. Third, will give you other topics to write guides on.

For example, instead of doing one guide on leveling all professions, Teodorwild made 11 guides; one for each individual profession. This makes it easier for him to update, and for readers to be able to find what they are looking for.

Don't be Overly Specific. If you want a successful guide that receive a lot of views and ratings you will not want a guide that will be helpful to a very small handful of individuals. There's is nothing wrong with making guides targeting very small specific groups, but that comes at the risk of them not being popular.

For example, my guide Two Game Accounts One Folder - Now with Mac is very specific to a small population: PC users, which have multiple accounts, and want to have identical addon settings across the accounts. This guide has received 100% less votes and a fifth the views compared to my other guides by they time they were the same "age".

• Ask Yourself...

When picking your subject ask yourself the following questions:

Is this subject unique or original? If not, am I adding something worth making a new guide over?

Is this subject new and fresh or old and overdone?

Do I understand this subject enough to be able to explain it to someone who knows nothing about it?

Is this something that actually requires a guide?

Will people find it interesting?

Is the information relevant or outdated?

The answers to these questions will lead you in the right direction for your guide.

Layout

The layout of your guide is very important. It can mean the difference between a blah guide and an AWESOME!!! guide. Some key points to remember to help you make an awesome guide is the layout has to be:

Informative. Have information people want or need.

Pleasing. Has to be pleasing to read through, and easy on the eyes.

Flow Well. It clearly has a start, middle and ending.

Navigate. The guide is easy to navigate at first read, and for bits for returning reads.

Your layout is a combination of both the information you are presenting and how you are presenting it.

• Deciding Your Key Points

After you have your subject, you need key points to help break apart your guide so that it is easier to read. I usually do a quick brainstorming session where I write out topics and notes. This helps me organize my ideas into major key points and sub key points. I use this time to ask myself what information are other people looking for or questions they may have. I also try to remember things I have read on the subject and questions that were asked. Trying to make sure I cover those questions the best I can.

For example, the image to the left is the brainstorming for my AddOns: How to Install and Maintain guide. The idea was pretty straight forward. I just needed to break it down into the key points, which was mainly the about getting, installing and maintaining addons. I let it set a few days, then came back and added in two more key points I thought would be important after reading several posts on the WoW Forums.

Now that you have a good start with your key points and sub key points. Along with a basic idea of how large the guide may be. It's time to really organize the flow of the guide.

I have found the best way to organize the key points was to do a quick outline and, if you need, sub-points. Similar to how many of us were taught to write a research paper. This will help you stay organized and on track while you continue to write your guide. I usually write my layout on paper, and then add notes and thoughts as I am researching into the topic a bit more. This way I have everything in one place.

For example, the image to the right is the cleanest of my "Scratch Papers", and is for my Creating Custom NonSet Transmogrifications guide. As you can see I had kept it down to four major key points, and scribbled in notes as I worked.

Remember these are your notes so they don't have to be perfect, or make sense to anyone else. Only you. They are a place to jot down your notes, research and thoughts.

Once you are at this point it's a good idea to do some extra research to verify your facts. You have enough structure to know what information you are looking for, but still fluid enough that will allow you to make changes without messing up a lot of your work.

• How Many Key Points?

You really do not want to break it down any further than main and sub headings, or it may become too complicated to read through. So keep to the \\

If your guide is too short it might not be enough information to be published, but if it's too long people might not read it or you might not finish it. So you need to find the sweet spot. This spot will be dependent on what your guide is about and your goal for the guide.

In Creating Custom NonSet Transmogrifications my goal was to make a quick guide people could use to create their own nonset transmogs. I wanted to give them the tools, the process, and tips and tricks, I have stumbled across, without blocking their creativity with predesigned transmogs. I saved those for another optional guide that is possibly targeting another group of players. I was able to break the whole process into four (4) key points + introduction and closing. Where my Guide to Professions at the Darkmoon Faire is broken down into seven (7) key points.

A good range is between 4 - 7 key points not including Introduction or Closing. These are your main points (not sub points). This will give you enough content for the guide to be a guide, but not too much for it to be overwhelming.

• Adding the Content

This is the bulk of the guide. This will be your copy (i.e., text) that the users will read. There's a few rules I learned between guide writing and doing work for newspapers.

Keep to the point as best you can. Don't add a lot of fluff into what you are writing, or you will only confuse people.

Use average language. No need to be Shakespeare and pull out the thesaurus. Once again this will only confuse people.

If you can, keep it short. People really hate reading through walls of texts. However, sometimes it is needed.

When possible use visuals to explain. This helps cut down on a lot of your text. Picture is worth 1000 words.

Break up large amounts of text. Use lists, quotes, images, etc. to break up large bulks of copy to make it easier to read.

• Using BBCode to Help with the Flow

Formatting your guide using Wowhead's BBCode is something that is often be over looked. This is extremely powerful option Wowhead has given us. It can help organize your guide for users and make it easier to read and find specific items, as well as help create a look specific to your guides.

Without Formatting

]

With Formatting

As you can see with using paragraphs it's clean, but without the BBCode formatting it's very... well blah! Not very sure which parts are key points, sub key points, lists, quotes, or just small paragraphs.

When some of the basic formatting is used you can now see what are the key points, sub key points, lists, quotes, with a simple glance. We will get more into basic formatting BBCode next.

BBCode is the type of coding that is used by Wowhead for formatting guides. This is kind of like HTML, but many of the tags have been created specifically for Wowhead items, such as spells, NPCs, icons, etc.

• Some of the Basic Formatting

The BBCode coding can be a little scary at first, but a lot of the basic options are in the toolbar above your editing window.

This will supply you with some of the basic coding, but don't let the word basic fool you. As you saw in the images above basic formatting options can make a major difference in the look and feel of your guide.

Header - I use this for my main key points. This helps break the guide into sections. Also if you are using the built in table of content (ToC) it will automatically add it to it.

Example:

Code:

\\

Ut in geometria, prima si dederis, danda sunt omnia. \\

Sub Header - I use this for my minor/sub key points. Also if you are using the built in table of content (ToC) it will automatically add it to it.

Example:

Code:

\\

Rationis enim perfectio est virtus; \\

Bold Text - I don't use this a lot, when I do it's usually when I have important points within a minor key point or when I make a notice.

Example:

Septem autem illi non suo

Code:

\\ Septem autem illi non suo \\

Italic Text - I don't use this a lot. When I use it it's usually with a quote or to emphasize a specific word or sentence.

Example:

Quae ista amicitia est?

Code:

\\ Quae ista amicitia est? \\

List Items - There are two kinds unordered \\

Already created and uploaded

Automatic thumbnail and lightbox built into the code

Smaller amount of coding

Possibly more options to choose from

Drawbacks

Can't resize the thumbnail

Might not be any screenshots for the item, npc, etc.

Limited options for screenshot (e.g., npc, in game shots, etc.)

Less original image

• Uploading Images

Since screenshots are limited in what there are screenshots of, you may need to create your own image for your guide. I tend to do this for my guides banners, or if there is something specific in-game I want a specific shot for.

Going to assume you have your image saved to your computer already.

Edit your guide.

Where it says "Upload an image" you can drag and drop the image from your computer into the box.

-OR- Click on it and search for the location of the image on your computer.

Once successfully uploaded it will say "Upload of _____ complete" and give you the URL to your image.

You will then need to put the code into your guide.

Benefits

The image can be specific to your guide

You don't have to host it

You can change the size and border

The image can be something other than an in-game shot

Drawbacks

You have to create it

Limited to format types (e.g., no animated gifs)

Takes more coding

Uploaded image might not be allowed (i.e., against the Wowhead rules)

• Hotlinked Images

Sometimes we find images we really like on a site that we want to use, or we want to use format that uploading

Hotlinking is hosting the image elsewhere and linking back to Wowhead. For legal reasons you will either need the host's permission (they allow you to link from them) or you own the hosting. You can use sites such as Photobucket, imgur, Picasa, or even your own hosting.

Edit your guide.

You will then need to put the code into your guide.

Source: hordies4lyfe

Benefits

The image can be specific to your guide

You can use animation or transparency

You can change the size and border

The image can be something other than an in-game shot

Drawbacks

You have to create it or find it

You have to host it

Takes more coding

There may be more legal issue

• Watermarking Images

This is not something required, but a lot of people who create guides for multiple sources may want to make sure that the source of their guides are properly linked backed to them. Because of this they want to also protect any images that they create for their guide. They do this by using watermarks.

There are different types of watermarks, but for this guide the one we're going to touch on is the digital watermark. This is a usually a logo or marking on the image to identify the owner, creator, or copyright holder to help protect it from being duplicated or stolen.

Wowhead also places a watermark on all the images that are screenshot. It's a faint image of the logo in lower right corner of the image.

In my Custom Transmog Set I used watermarks over the images of the transmogs as well as a more clear water mark in the lower corner. The watermark is "For Wowhead Guide Only" as I created the guide specifically and only for Wowhead.

I did this in Photoshop:

White text

Bold / Thick Font

Larger size (~36px)

Opacity: 20%

Fill: 40%

Blend Mode: Soft Light

When watermarking you don't want it to cover or take away from the image. In the example to the left you see on the left half how the bright colors distracts and makes it difficult to make out the image. This over maps and images where details play a big role can make the image rather worthless to your guide.

Creating

Now that you have the basic idea of what all it takes to create and maintain a guide the following is a quick how to of actually mechanics of creating the guide on Wowhead.

• Start Your Guide

Go to the Guide page on Wowhead. On the right side of the center column under the navbar and advert location you will see a small red button "Write New Guide". You will want to click on this to start the creation of your guide.

You will be greeted with some details you will need to input for your guide.

Title. Make your title something that let's readers know what it's about. Try to be as specific as you can with as few words as possible.

Category. This is where your guide will be placed. Select the closest to your guide as possible.

Patch. This is which version of World of Warcraft your guide is most updated for.

Keywords. These are words that will pull your guide up in the search. These should be generic terms related to your guide. Like "herbalism", "2v2", "heirloom".

Description. 131 characters to give a brief idea of your guide.

• Writing Your Guide

Some people write their guide directly into the Wowhead edit guide area. I use Notepad++ to write my guide out on. It is easier to work with and I can edit, and save multiple copies without worrying about losing my work.

You also have main way of going about writing your guide. You can write it all out then go back in and add images and formatting, or your can do formatting while writing. This is entirely up to you and neither way is better.

Etiquette

• Grammar Police

Many users will mark your guide lower for incorrect spelling or grammar instead of the content. It is best to remove as many of the errors as possible. However, it is understandable for some to sneak in when you think about how long a person is working on their guide, and add to it any formatting. That combination can lead to a few errors here and there.

Somethings to do to help you with this:

Step away from your guide for a few days then come back to it. Read over it in the "saved" state.

Save a copy of your guide to a 3rd party program, and have a trusted friend read over it prior to publishing, or have them read through your guide right after it is published. Maybe someday Wowhead will make a proofreading mode where you can send the link to your guide in a private mode to a friend to see before publishing.

Avoid slangs and abbreviations if possible (unless they are universal game related). These can make understanding a guide difficult. More so for those that English is not their primary language

• Giving Credit

There are lots of things you should give credit for. If you fail to do so and get called out -- you will look like a jerk, and possibly have your guide removed. It's not hard to credit people where you obtained your stuff from.

Things you should credit:

Direct quotes.

Any place you have gathered any of your information from.

If your guide talks about an addon, service, or site.

Images outside of Wowhead.

If you borrowed anything from another guide -- including format or if they helped you in their comments.

Anyone who provides more information in your comments.

Wowhead owner property and Blizzard property; one assumes that their stuff is owned by them respectfully.

Submission

• Is It Ready?

So you have spent a few hours or even days on your guide, you can see the finish line right there, but is it ready to be published? Well, maybe. There are several things to consider before you publish your guide, as you do not want to publish an incomplete guide.

Ask yourself the following before publishing:

Did I cover everything I set out to do?

Did I proof-read and removed as many errors as possible without ripping my eyes out?

Is the guide complete?

If the guide will continue to be added to (this is different than an incomplete guide) did you mark it as such?

Am I sure there is no other guide already published with this information?

Is this guide worth making a guide about or will it better fit just a comment?

In the end it's always good to give one last read through, and don't be like me and do it at 3am.

• What to Expect

So you have decided everything is good and it's ready to go -- now what?

Stage #1. Well, to start your guide doesn't just get put up as soon as you submit it. It must be approved. Wowhead’s team does this manually so it will take some time. Be patient as they are only human... I think. It can take a few days to a week depending on the number of guides they have to go through and if you submitted during the weekend or holiday.

Stage #2. If your guide gets approved you are now on to the next stage. Now it's a waiting game. Your guide will be place into the appropriate section. It will be labeled "New", and will be below the "Stickied" guides and above all the others.

You will not see the rating on your guide until it has received 5 ratings. At that time the "New" restriction is removed, and your guide will take its place among the other guides.

Stage #3. Once your guide is live and you receive your 5 ratings; you are not finished. You should not write your guide and forget it. You need to continue to do the following:

Update and maintain it. New information is provided to you, you find new stuff to add, or Blizzard changes something.

Follow up on your comments. You don't have to reply to them all, but keep an eye on them. It's a great place to get information to add, and suggestion on how to improve you current or future guide.

Guide Declined. Your guide may not make it to Stage #2. There are many reasons why it won't, but if for whatever reason it's not, the Wowhead team is usually pretty good about letting you know why.

Some common reasons why your guide may have been declined:

It's not in English. Wowhead Guides are in English only Wowhead now allows guides in a handful of different languages. If your guide is not one of those Languages it will be declined.

Not enough content to make up a full guide. Sometimes the information may be better suited as a comment.

Layout is lacking. Layout makes up a large part of your guide. If your guide is good, but layout is horrible or extremely lacking it may not get published. So link spells, items, NPCs, quests, etc., add in images, add Heading and subheadings, etc.

Just text, a screenshot, or links will not cut it. You need more details and layout with your guides.

A majority of the guide is just copied and pasted from comments, other guides, or another site.

The entire guide belongs to someone else. Even crediting the person -- unless they post it it's not allowed.

The guide appear or is incomplete.

Previously been rejected and no major changes have been made to it.

If your guide does get declined don't worry there's things you can do.

The Wowhead mod (usually asakawa) will provide you with information as to why your guide was declined. Read it!

Do more research if you are lacking in material. Check out the WoW forums, comments on Wowhead, read through fan sites, etc.

Check out published guides to see what Wowhead is expecting from a publishable guide.

Browser through other guides to see how they did their layouts, images, etc. Get some inspiration if you are needing to improve on your layout.

Bribe asakawa with some 巧克力曲奇饼 and 赛马酒. Okay this may not work, but still a nice gestor. ;)

Ask others for help. asakawa is usually fairly good about giving feedback and assistance to those who ask. You can also hit up the Wowhead forums.

Once you have made improvements to your guide -- try resubmitting it again.

Feedback

Whenever we put anything out on a public venue you can expect to get feedback from others. Wowhead is a great area to help each other, and they try hard to support a community that is healthy and encourages growth. This does not mean that every reply you get is sprinkles and unicorns.

• Handling Feedback

Feedback is important to all guide writers. It lets us know what people are wanting and what they expect. Not all feedback is going to be praise. However, as long as it's good criticism learn from it.

There are multiple types of feedback.

This is feedback that is mainly just comments on your guide. They aren't good or bad, and don't have any criticism in them. This does however, let you know your guide is being looked at.

This is feedback on how to improve your guide. This is mainly about the layout of the guide. Things that would make your guide easier to use, and more appealing to users. Maybe even how to better organize the information in a more logical way. You do not need to follow this feedback, but still consider it as some can be very useful in improving your guide.

This is feedback that helps you to keep your guide correct and up to date. It is usually about information that has changed, been left out, or could help other understand your guide a little more. This is good to review and take into consideration to improve your guide.

This is a post that really has nothing to do with your guide. You can either ignore, down vote, or report such posts to help keep your guide's comment section easy to navigate for others.

• Dealing with Trolls

Simple... don't feed them.

You may run into a troll or two when you put yourself out there, and make your work public. This is to be expected. Most of these comments will not benefit your guide or the readers of your guide.

Use the tools Wowhead provides.

Vote their comment down, and don't bother replying.

If it's bad enough (cursing, threats, name calling, major derailing, etc.) report the comment using the report feature in the right upper corner of their comment.

If they are harassing you do not reply back and report them to Wowhead Admins.

Just remember that just because someone says something you may not agree with or dislike does not mean it's trolling. Trolling is someone attempting to achieve an aggressive reaction from others or to try and derail the conversation. They usually do not add anything of merit to the topic.

Updating

Once you have submitted your guide and it's been approved, you are not finished. New information is being found, and changes are constantly being made to the game. Old and outdated information is not helpful for readers, and can result in wasted time and resources for them.

• Why You Should

New stuff released. This is following an expansion, patch, or changes to the PTR. For cases like your guide is for a tradeskill you may want to update with the changes from the newest expansion to keep your guide relevant.

New information. When you get new information it's best to update your guide with it. This information may come from a comment or doing continued research on your guide. Updating with the new information helps access to that information easier for readers.

Change in the site. This is usually related to formatting of your guide. I have change the format of my guides as Wowhead has made some changes in the formatting of guides. Plus as you create guides you will find better ways of displaying information that you want to use.

• When You Should

New stuff released. This is following an expansion, patch, or changes to the PTR. Not always required to be instantly updated, as some of the information may still change, or there may be a lot of new information. I usually wait a week or so following the release of it. This will depend on your guide as well.

New information. When you get new information it's best to update your guide with it. These are usually small bits of updating, and could be done fairly quickly, and should be considered to do as soon as you can. Don't forget to include a note in your changelog.

Change in the site. This is usually related to formatting of your guide. This would really depend on how much the change messes with your formatting. For major overhauls of layouts I usually wait until an expansion or major content patch.

• But Should You?

This is something you may ask yourself, and the answer is that it depends. When looking at the changes consider these questions:

Is the information relevant or game changing for readers?

Do I have the time right now to make these proper changes?

Is the current information incorrect?

Does my guide really need this information or does it relate to my guide?

If you are answering "yes" to a lot of these you may want to make those updates. Keeping your guide updated also helps increase the view and rating of your guide. Remember if your guide is not updated (kept up to date for the current version of WoW) Wowhead's team does do house cleaning and set them to . This seems to usually happen to guides that are still set for expasions from 3 expansion ago or earlier.

Wrapping Up

Guide writing is not something that is easily done without a lot of thought and work put into. It's a skill like anything else. The more you work the better you become at it, and the more aspects become second nature. However, if you use aspects of this guide you will be writing your very own Wowhead guides in no time at all.

• Quick Tips

Save a draft of your work to a text file using programs such as Notepad++ before you save your guide on Wowhead. This will make sure you have a backup copy of the guide if anything should happen.

Make paper outlines of your guide prior to starting. This will help you organize your thoughts and make sure you have enough content for a guide.

Use BBCode formatting for your guide to help make it flow and easier to read.

Consider doing the formatting of your guide in HTML and when completed change it over to BBCode. BBCode is very similar, but you can then use NotePad++ syntext coloring to help you better see the formatting.

Experiement with formatting. Combine formatting to make your layout unquic.

Use images and Wowhead's database to add more detail to your guide.

Return to your guide after it goes live. Update and keep it relavent.

• Helpful Links

Here are some other helpful links that can help you in your creation of a Wowhead guide: